Hello David I loved your "Resurrection" and certainly do not mean this question as a critique - but - Do you have a philosophy for when to "roll" a chord? I hear a great many wonderful players and each seems to have a different idea about this.
Thanks, Joseph Mayes On 11/13/12 3:33 PM, "David Tayler" <[email protected]> wrote: > Most of Dowland's lute solos come down to use a sketch--two outside > lines, a few chords, and some "noodly appendages"--ornaments added by > lutebook owners or their copyists. > Many conclusions can be drawn, but the basic question remains, what to > do with all of these sources? Obviously, performing them "as is" is one > solution, and perfectly fine--a snapshot in time of what a lute player > of the time would have played. Absoutely OK, and there it is, in the > ms. But suppose there is more? > The other path is to add inner voices and strip out the noodly > appendages. I've given this quite a bit of thought over the last > twenty-five years, and I have a few simple guidelines. > 1. Eliminate parallel fifths and octaves. Dowland never wrote bad > counterpoint, so these have to go. Famous example is the version of > Lachrimae with the parallel fifth in the opening phrase, even though > Dowland's published version is different. > 2. Strip out "orbiting" noodly appendages. One sure sign of cookbook, > color-by-number ornaments are those that present a set of added melodic > sequences that start and end on the same note. Accomplished composers > rarely use these, they are intended mainly for students. By returning > to the same note, you mostly avoid the problem of parallel octaves and > fifths, thus, an amateur who could not read music and did not study > counterpoint could provide "correct" counterpoint in simple ornaments. > Ornamentation treatises mention this trick as a way to dive in to > ornamentation: nothing wrong with it, but it is for beginners--not > Dowland. > 3. Make sure cadences have leading tones somewhere in the bar, and end > chords with thirds in the harmony. Although you see open fifths in mid > century lute works, by 1590 you mainly see full harmony. A skilled > player would not play G Major with a third and C "Major" without the > third just to avoid fifth position, and you see this in the ms sources. > Whether these open chords were simply sketches, or intentionally left > to the play to fill in, foreshadowing later works such as Visee, these > need leading tones. > 4. Inner parts. Dowland's works at an absolute minimum always support a > tenor or alto part, or both. If they are missing, they need to be > supplied. There are a myriad of examples in the lute solos and lute > songs, and they follow simple rules of counterpoint. If you study the > chromatic fantasies, you can see complex inversions and imitation, but > ta simple, well-written line will do. After analyzing all of the works, > I can see that they were composed with inner parts in mind--that is, > there are no works that paint contrapuntal corners where inner parts > are not possible, which you see in other composers. > Following these rules, I have created a very simple example. In one > place I changed the harmony to make sure the form was "rounded," that > is, a sort of mini refrain but the rest is pretty straightforward. > http://youtu.be/Pr7jtlXk-OU?hd=1 > I'm interested in new ideas going forward, before I tackle some of the > more complex works. Please feel free to make suggestions. > dt > > -- > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
